NO, WE SHOULDN'T STOP TRYING TO DEBUNK TRUMP, ESPECIALLY ON THE $5000 BRIBE CHECKS

Jason Sattler, whose online name is LOLGOP, thinks we shouldn't talk about Donald Trump's promised $5000 bribe checks in a skeptical way -- in fact, we shouldn't talk about them at all.

THE GOLDEN RULE: Trump doesn't lie to be believed. He lies to be repeated. So even if you think you're debunking him on the bribe checks, you're helping him.

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— 🗽LOLGOP🗽 (@lolgop.bsky.social) September 12, 2026 at 9:17 AM

In an essay on the subject, he writes:

Ten years of debunkings, fact-checks, and explainers. Every one of them has been counterproductive at best and, at worst, helped make him more powerful. There’s a reason for that. And once you get it, life makes far more sense.

Trump doesn’t lie to be believed. He lies to be repeated.

Sattler cites Trump's lifelong belief in Norman Vincent Peale's Power of Positive Thinking -- something I've written about many times -- but he says something I wouldn't say, which is that Peale-ism is the reason we shouldn't bother to try to debunk Trump. As an example, Sattler uses Trump's repeated fairytales about how tariffs work.

When Trump says other countries pay his tariffs, he isn’t suppressing a truth he knows. He’s willing his reality into existence.

Repetition is how that works. Every economist debunking the claim, every outraged world leader, every segment on who actually pays: they’re all saying the words. The corrections feed the ritual and center Trump’s narrative. You can’t fight the lie by debunking it. You can only spread it.

So, according to Sattler's post, we shouldn't explain how tariffs actually work and, according to the Bluesky post above, we shouldn't say the bribe checks will never happen and will be inflation-inducing debt-exploders if they did do. We should say nothing.

I get what Sattler is trying to say here: that our debunkings help spread Trump's assertions to Trump's true believers. But our debunking aren't meant for Trump's true believers. They're meant for non-MAGA voters -- true swing voters, voters who chose Trump in the past but are now disillusioned, voters who lean Democratic but live in neighborhoods and news environments strongly influenced by right-wing messaging.

If we don't repeat Trump's messages in order to debunk them, it's not as if they won't be repeated. These persuadable voters will hear Trump's messages repeated in the right-wing media, in the mainstream media, on social media, and in conversations with friends and neighbors. They'll also hear Trump's messaging from Republican candidates and officeholders. So we have a choice: they can hear Trump's messaging five hundred times, always with a positive spin, or they can hear it discussed negatively and skeptically an additional five hundred times (if we're persistent and keep on debunking until we break through). I choose the latter.

We have an advantage now that we didn't have a year ago or two years ago: the majority of Americans now understand that Trump is a liar. They know he lied about affordability and lied about keeping us out of war. They know he's lying, or at least ignorant, about how tariffs work. They know he's doing nothing to make their lives better.

So it's fine if the 38% who are still in the cult believe that our debunkings prove Trump is right. We're not talking to them. We're talking to everyone else.

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One particular subset of voters will probably be exposed to a great deal of repetitive pro-bribe messaging. I'm talking about elderly Republicans.

Remember that Adam Bonica story a few weeks ago about Democratic email messaging that appears to be aimed at older, easily scared voters? His argument was that a few Democratic firms get their hooks into the elderly with fundraising pleas that convey a false sense of urgency. Some recipients drain their bank accounts responding to these messages.

Whether or not those who operate this fundraising model recognize or intend it, fundraising spam runs on similar psychological levers to those that federal law enforcement and consumer-protection groups identify as hallmarks of elder financial exploitation: manufactured urgency, emotional appeals engineered to trigger guilt or fear, false exclusivity, fabricated account or profile statuses that look like official notices, and relentless pressure to give before there’s time to think. Why stamp “FINAL ATTEMPT” on a message and warn that “the deadline is just hours away” if not to manufacture urgency? Why claim that Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Hakeem Jeffries have emailed you, then demand an answer to their “desperate pleas” if not to trigger guilt? Why warn that Social Security checks will be “SLASHED by $500/month?!” — up from the $460 in the email sent two days earlier — if not to stoke fear? Why tell someone they are “the only Democrat in your city who hasn’t responded” if not to single them out? Why announce a recipient’s “appointment to the Social Security Advisory Board” above a picture of a Social Security card if not to dress a solicitation as official business? Why the midnight deadlines, the countdown timers, the “400% MATCH” that applies only if you give right now, if not to force a decision before reflection can intervene?

Well, according to a story from the Washington Sun (formerly NOTUS), Republicans are fundraising with similar urgent messages -- but these messages involve the $5000 bribe checks:

Groups affiliated with Reps. Wesley Hunt of Texas and Jimmy Patronis of Florida sent fundraising emails based on the check on Thursday and Friday, featuring messages like: “Trump just promised $5,000 back in your pocket if Republicans hold Congress this midterm. ... This is your FINAL CHANCE.”

Challengers across the country are deploying a similar tactic. A campaign text promoting Eric Flores — a Texas Republican running in what the Cook Political Report has deemed a “toss up” race against Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez — also touted Trump’s proposal in a message to potential voters.

“Attachment: $5,000 check for Mr./Mrs. [BLANK]. Pres. Trump just authorized it. Access portal & support approval ASAP,” the text reads before linking to Flores’ WinRed fundraising page.

In New Hampshire, House candidate Anthony DiLorenzo’s campaign in a lean-Democrat district sent an email stating “IF YOU” help Republicans win the midterm elections, “THEN TRUMP will send you a $5,000 Trump dividend check! Deal or no deal?”

There will undoubtedly be GOP voters who donate more than $5000 to Republican candidates because they feel it's the only way to ensure that they'll receive their $5000 bribe checks -- which, of course, will never come.

These are people we can't reach. But maybe we can reach millions of others.